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> Which is why these guys weren't able to do anything after Myst. And yet many regard its sequel, Riven, as one of the best puzzle games ever made.

by nilkn 13y ago

SwellJoe 13y ago
I would love it if there were a whole category of games like Riven.
- wolfgke 13y ago
  There was. Examples are the adventure games that were produced by Detalion (a Polish studio) (most popular ones: - Schizm: Mysterious Journey - Mysterious Journey II (also known under the name "Schizm II: Chameleon" and in Germany "Schizm II: Trügerische Wahrheit") - Sentinel - Descendants In Time (also known under the name "Realms of Illusion" and in Germany "Sentinel: Verborgene Existenzen") (To my knowledge) mainly in Germany also the RHEM series (an indie game series) had its followers. What all these games did - in my opinion - wrong, is that they concentrated a lot on puzzle solving (often with really hard puzzles; especially about the Schizm/Mysterious Journey series some people say that you'll probably only like them if you either study mathematics or physics ;-) ) and not so much on exploring. Myst and especially Riven mainly concentrated mainly on exploring, while not so much on puzzle solving. This IMHO made the huge appeal Myst and Riven made, which other studies "didn't get".
- nilkn 13y ago
  As wolfgke points out, there are a lot of games that were inspired by Myst and Riven, but unfortunately I've never found one that got it right the way Riven did. The thing about Riven, for me, that made it so compelling was that the puzzles were mostly integrated seamlessly into the world. Even Myst didn't really accomplish this to the same extent Riven did. In Riven, exploration was not distinct from puzzle solving. Rather, the two terms were nearly synonymous. Some of the hardest puzzles could only be figured out by wandering around the world and soaking everything in; staring at the marble puzzle without realizing what anything on it represented about the world around you wouldn't get you anywhere. Myst IV came closer to replicating this, and by God it was and is gorgeous. But I personally found some of the puzzles in Myst IV to simply be too brutal, and the world overall was broken into pieces like in the original Myst rather than one more seamless environment.

> Which is why these guys weren't able to do anything after Myst. And yet many regard its sequel, Riven, as one of the best puzzle games ever made.

by nilkn 13y ago

> Which is why these guys weren't able to do anything after Myst. And yet many regard its sequel, Riven, as one of the best puzzle games ever made.

SwellJoe 13y ago

I would love it if there were a whole category of games like Riven.

wolfgke 13y ago
There was. Examples are the adventure games that were produced by Detalion (a Polish studio) (most popular ones: - Schizm: Mysterious Journey - Mysterious Journey II (also known under the name "Schizm II: Chameleon" and in Germany "Schizm II: Trügerische Wahrheit") - Sentinel - Descendants In Time (also known under the name "Realms of Illusion" and in Germany "Sentinel: Verborgene Existenzen") (To my knowledge) mainly in Germany also the RHEM series (an indie game series) had its followers. What all these games did - in my opinion - wrong, is that they concentrated a lot on puzzle solving (often with really hard puzzles; especially about the Schizm/Mysterious Journey series some people say that you'll probably only like them if you either study mathematics or physics ;-) ) and not so much on exploring. Myst and especially Riven mainly concentrated mainly on exploring, while not so much on puzzle solving. This IMHO made the huge appeal Myst and Riven made, which other studies "didn't get".
nilkn 13y ago
As wolfgke points out, there are a lot of games that were inspired by Myst and Riven, but unfortunately I've never found one that got it right the way Riven did. The thing about Riven, for me, that made it so compelling was that the puzzles were mostly integrated seamlessly into the world. Even Myst didn't really accomplish this to the same extent Riven did. In Riven, exploration was not distinct from puzzle solving. Rather, the two terms were nearly synonymous. Some of the hardest puzzles could only be figured out by wandering around the world and soaking everything in; staring at the marble puzzle without realizing what anything on it represented about the world around you wouldn't get you anywhere. Myst IV came closer to replicating this, and by God it was and is gorgeous. But I personally found some of the puzzles in Myst IV to simply be too brutal, and the world overall was broken into pieces like in the original Myst rather than one more seamless environment.